I told you this would happen, and now it has: the Alliance for Motion Picture and Television Producers representing the Big Mediamoguls finally acknowledged today that after 13 days the negotiations with SAG are at a stalemate with only 2 days left go. And, as I predicted, the AMPTP is blaming everything on the Screen Actors Guild. I can’t help but admire how faithfully the Hollywood CEOs follow the scripts they write. Especially at a time when the movie studios have put into effect a de facto feature strike. (See my previous, FIRST NEWS ABOUT SAG-AMPTP TALKS)

The organization that speaks for the CEO clique running Hollywood issued a “Negotiations Update” that breaks its silence over the progress, or lack of it, in the talks with SAG:

“The AMPTP has been negotiating with SAG now for 13 days. Last week, we asked AFTRA to delay the start of its negotiations until May 5th so that we could give the SAG talks every opportunity to produce an agreement. Since the SAG negotiations are due to wrap up on Friday, May 2nd, today is a good time to let you know where things stand.

When we requested an extra week for the SAG negotiations, we told you that there were “significant gaps” between the parties. Candidly, we must offer the same assessment of the negotiations today, with just over two days to go. Although both parties have spent considerable time in the negotiating room, we are not yet close to an agreement. This is the case for two fundamental reasons:

First, SAG initially rejected the framework for new media that was established through the DGA, WGA and AFTRA Network Code negotiations. The Producers’ position has been that there is no valid reason to upend the new media framework that has already been accepted by writers, directors, and AFTRA Network Code. Last week, SAG indicated that it would be willing to live within the existing new media framework – but only with more than 70 changes to the framework, some of which would go a long way toward making the framework itself unworkable.

The second reason is this: SAG’s willingness to work with the existing new media framework (albeit with more than 70 changes) was conditioned on AMPTP addressing SAG’s demands in traditional media areas. Unfortunately, these demands – including a doubling of the existing DVD formula and huge increases in compensation and benefits – would result in enormous cost increases that we are not willing to accept. The SAG Basic and TV Agreements are mature labor pacts for mature businesses. In such circumstances employers in other industries typically negotiate reductions and efficiencies to reduce costs. We are not seeking to do this. But we cannot responsibly accept the unprecedented, double-digit increases in DVD residuals and conditions being sought by SAG, or wage hikes that in some cases reach 200%. As a result, we have made little progress in narrowing the significant differences with SAG on these critical traditional media issues.

We still have two days of negotiations remaining with SAG, and we are going to continue to work as hard as we can to find a mutually acceptable resolution. Failing that, we are prepared to begin negotiations with AFTRA on Monday, May 5th. “

See here for the AMPTP’s entire negotiations update as well for as the AMPTP’s “Setting the Record Straight” document that purports to counter SAG’s recent series of 2008 Contract Reports — #1 discussing middle-income actors, #2 talking about New Media (at end of post), and #3 exploring residuals.)

Within hours, SAG leadership issued this response to its members:

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) posted a message to their member companies today on the AMPTP website. We felt it was important that we directly communicate our continued dedication to the negotiations process.

Screen Actors Guild remains committed to reaching a fair agreement with the AMPTP. To that end, we are prepared to bargain continuously, for as long as it takes.

The AMPTP knows we did not state that they had to agree to all of our non-new media proposals. We expect the AMPTP to negotiate in good faith and we will do the same.

We stand by our research and the information we provided you in our Contract 2008 Reports. We are not surprised that the employers dispute the economic hardships actors are facing. You know better.

We will not negotiate this contract in the press. Instead, we are focused on reaching a fair contract that addresses your needs as professional actors. We will continue to update you regularly.

C’mon, who does the AMPTP think it’s fooling? The script all along was to stonewall SAG, make a quick (and terrible for the actors) deal with the AFTRA pushovers, villify SAG leadership to the members, and then try to break whatever is left of SAG’s solidarity. I still think that using AFTRA as a wedge to soften up SAG is a non-starter. It doesn’t matter what AFTRA does because that union doesn’t even deal with motion pictures. But today AFTRA tried its best to look like the most “reasonable” of guilds — announcing its members had ratified the Network Television Code by an overwhelming 93.35% approval, and that its leadership had pacted with producers of non-broadcast, educational, and industrial material for an 18-month extension to the contract that covers performers doing on-camera and voiceover services.

So what does Hollywood have to look forward to film-wise? More of the same: no greenlighting because of fears of a SAG strike. Major players in this town are telling me they haven’t seen the movie industry this dead since, well, they can’t remember. It’s also a major reason that there’s so much turmoil at the agencies; big-name clients are panicking and jumping ship if they’re idle, and there’s a cutthroat competition to keep them or sign them.

I’ve told you before and I’ll repeat it again: The AMPTP is staying on message that it’s now prepared to wait out SAG for a deal until as late as mid-July. That means months of more motion picture inactivity, all of which the AMPTP intends to blame on SAG. As today’s statement shows, the AMPTP is furious that SAG negotiators are intent on getting a better deal for its actor members than the WGA or the DGA did on formulas for both New Media and also DVD residuals. Both Peter Chernin and Bob Iger in backchannel talks with SAG leadership, including a session as recently as the 2nd week in April, have been repeatedly saying that the studios and networks won’t budge on the numbers previously agreed to with the writers and directors — even if the actors have different needs.

But it’s the moguls own fault: if only they’d kept their word and agreed in the past to visit the residual formulas for home video, and then DVDs, maybe leadership inside SAG would believe the moguls’ pledge to revisit those for New Media three years from now. But truth and transparency have never been the strong suit of Big Media (i..e. studio accounting).

After the AMPTP pacts with AFTRA, I fully expect the mogul group to stay away from the bargaining table with SAG — just like it did with the WGA — or conduct what can only be described as disingenuous negotiating. The Hollywood CEOs are virtually daring SAG to strike when its contract expires the end of June. I do hope that SAG can restrain itself and hold off calling a strike after that, instead engaging in brinkmanship for a reasonable period. Because Chernin and Iger will in the end make a deal with SAG that I do believe will contain better numbers than the other contracts. Why? Because timing will be on SAG’s side. And because the power is always in the moguls’ hands, and never forget that, no matter if the AMPTP and its lapdog media choose to blame SAG.

84 Comments

broke • on Apr 30, 2008 4:25 pm

Fucking Disaster

SaveHollywood07 • on Apr 30, 2008 4:37 pm

How about reporting on how the Actors are our of their frackin’ minds for thinking they are going to double DVD residuals and get a markedly better deal than their “brothers” at the WGA. They need to get a clue on what’s realistic and acceptable and act like rationale humans. Oh wait. Most of them are the non-working actors. I forgot!

Seriously, we all are behind the fight against big business for a fair contract but SAG truly seems out of touch in their demands. And, I fear, this will only lead to another strike which will completely decimate a business that hasn’t even recovered from the Writer’s strike.

WORKING actors please talk some sense into your union

Enough • on Apr 30, 2008 4:41 pm

Sigh here we go again, the TOLDJA is more fucking annoying than the rest of the article.

Emerson Brooks • on Apr 30, 2008 4:42 pm

Not shocking at all. Quite expected.
Now its time to bend over and let AFTRA have its way with my future. Great.

Maybe…just maybe…if all of the dual cardholders got together and went AFTRA FiCo at the same time (or at least threatened to)…I wonder…

Danny • on Apr 30, 2008 4:43 pm

For god’s sake, it’s called negotiating! Suggest a lower figure, AMPTP, don’t just walk away from the table!

Anonymous • on Apr 30, 2008 4:46 pm

SAG needs a reality check – they go on strike and the whole town will turn against them. Ask any sensible actor – they are pissed at the leadership.

Writer Bob • on Apr 30, 2008 4:47 pm

The irony is, doubling the DVD residual rate is still way too little. (Except of course for the DGA.)

While it is news, it should be no surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention over the past few weeks. After AFTRA chose to go it alone, on April 3rd I wrote, concerning SAG’s bargaining position:

“There is no hurry. The primetime television and theatrical contracts don’t expire until June 30. Hurrying a deal works only to the benefit of the AMPTP. In a negotiation, it must be taken into consideration that if it will gain one side or the other a strategic advantage, they’ll be perfectly happy to drag their feet. The AMPTP did just this in their negotiations with the WGA. They dragged their feet for MONTHS, then when someone woke up and noticed the Academy Awards were in jeopardy, suddenly it was hurry up and make a deal. Nobody should be fooled by efforts to use time or timing as a manipulative tool.”

Or now, it seems, to try to use the weaker actors’ union against the stronger one. My hope is AFTRA will hang tough and wait for SAG to make its deal. My fear is that AFTRA will make a rotten lousy deal as early as May 9. While it would not benefit actors, the latter is the more likely outcome.

Please Ms. Reardon, prove me wrong.

J.J. • on Apr 30, 2008 4:51 pm

I’m not surprised, I recognize the tactics.

just a thought • on Apr 30, 2008 4:51 pm

Can you say fi core

Bellamy Young • on Apr 30, 2008 4:51 pm

The AMPTP can call them “unprecedented, double-digit increases in DVD residuals” all they want, but the fact is, the proposed increase still wouldn’t bring the home-video residual rate back UP to where it was 20 years ago before the TRIPLE-digit SLASHING.

partycrasher • on Apr 30, 2008 4:52 pm

Deja…oh, I forget the rest of it.

Nick • on Apr 30, 2008 4:55 pm

I’ll say it ’til I’m blue in the face, SAG…

Hold firm on the DVDs. Everything else is bluster.

The Comet • on Apr 30, 2008 4:58 pm

It MUST be the actors fault. One only needs to read the comments on this site to realize that the WGA was 100% at fault for the Writers Strike, just as SAG is now 100% at fault for this mess.

God bless the fairminded heroes of this industry, men like Peter Chernin and Les Moonves, who have always looked out for the little guy!

Venice • on Apr 30, 2008 5:04 pm

Shocking! Absolutely shocking! Talk about a twist ending! It should have been obvious from the start that the AMPTP never planned to negotiate with SAG, just as it never intended to negotiate with the WGA (unless it was “reasonable,” meaning willing to shut up, get on hands and knees before Nick Counter and concede everything).

The AMPTP went through the charade with the WGA in order to get to the DGA for PR purposes. Oh what a bonus it was to be able to slander the WGA as “unreasonable.”

Now the AMPTP did the same thing to SAG, and they will quickly close a deal with the “reasonable” submissive people over at AFTRA who feel right at home with their hands around their ankles. They will proclaim that they really really really tried to make it work with SAG, but they were just SO stubborn and obstinate and child-like and unreasonable.

It makes me sick to see, but it wasn’t unexpected.

The AMPTP has great allies in this fight. The DGA and AFTRA must be so proud to be good little boys and girls, simps to the end, patted on the head by the big impressive grown-ups at AMPTP.

Now AFTRA can feel all important and stick it in the eye of SAG as the actors and performers they are supposed to represent are screwed, all for the self-aggrandizement of AFTRA’s myopic leadership.

Too bad the joke’s on AFTRA. Even worse that we will all have to suffer under the punchline of that joke, through no fault of our own.

Anon. • on Apr 30, 2008 5:08 pm

Actors. We knew why writers would strike: respect. We knew the DGA wouldn’t: they are rather amenable.

Actors? Flaky.

20 year character actor • on Apr 30, 2008 5:09 pm

Oh woe! Oh gloom! Those greedy actors are eroding, undermining and annihilating The Biz, which is perched as always on the crumbly mortar ledge of utter financial collapse! The end is near! The end is near! Oh, save us, DGA!

victoria • on Apr 30, 2008 5:23 pm

I just don’t think there will be a strike this go-around. People don’t seem panicked about it. SAG may not agree to a new contract for a while, but I just don’t see a doomsday scenario especially with the current economy. Actors will stick to their guns but not go out on strike, and then they will probably have to settle for crap like everyone else.

Anonymous • on Apr 30, 2008 5:29 pm

And now begins the waiting game…

Actor's Agent • on Apr 30, 2008 5:32 pm

Last time I checked, actors were not members of the DGA or WGA therefore they shouldn’t have to live by a deal they didn’t negotiate.

DGA rolled over and WGA went along to get everyone back to work.

Captain Obvious • on Apr 30, 2008 5:49 pm

Nikki writes,

“And, as I predicted, the AMPTP is blaming everything on the Screen Actors Guild.”

Here’s my prediction:

When SAG releases their statement – they will blame everything on the AMPTP.

It looks like the AMPTP isn’t just writing a script for its own members but for elements of SAG as well.

The feud with AFTRA, the infighting over “qualified voting” on the eve of a major contract negotiation was literally a gift to the AMPTP. It’s a sign of weakness and division in the SAG/AFTRA community, and like any smart predator, the AMPTP is sweeping in for the kill.

Many SAG members took a financial beating during the WGA strike, and they don’t have large parent corporations willing to carry them through the tough times. They’re in a position of weakness, and it was a terrible, potentially lethal mistake to allow these divisions to become public.

Machiavelli and Sun Tzu should be required reading for union leadership. I’m someone in the AMPTP has read it, because they’re taking advantage of every opportunity they’re being given.

Bill • on Apr 30, 2008 7:10 pm

So here we go, SAG thinking for some reason that pattern bargaining does not apply to them and also thinking that they can hold out and get something more. Pure Bullshit! In the end they will settle for about what is offered now after a weak “bankers hours” strike like WGA did. Next we’ll hear cries for solidarity from the rest of the unions – good night and good luck with that one guys. The AMPTP has not walked away yet, so get back in there and TRY to compromise before you fuck us all.